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    Crazy Love: A Memoir
    Crazy Love: A Memoir
    Crazy Love: A Memoir
    Audiobook8 hours

    Crazy Love: A Memoir

    Written by Leslie Morgan Steiner

    Narrated by Tanya Eby

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    At twenty-two, Leslie Morgan Steiner seemed to have it all: a Harvard diploma, a glamorous job at Seventeen magazine, a downtown New York City apartment. Plus a handsome, funny, street-smart boyfriend who adored her. But behind her facade of success, this golden girl hid a dark secret. She’d made a mistake shared by millions: She fell in love with the wrong person.

    At first Leslie and Conor seemed as perfect together as their fairy-tale wedding. Then came the fights she tried to ignore: He pushed her down the stairs of the house they bought together, poured coffee grinds over her hair as she dressed for a critical job interview, choked her during an argument, and threatened her with a gun. Several times he came close to making good on his threat to kill her. With each attack, Leslie lost another piece of herself.

    Gripping and utterly compelling, Crazy Love takes you inside the violent, devastating world of abusive love. Conor said he’d been abused since he was a young boy, and love and rage danced intimately together in his psyche. Why didn’t Leslie leave? She stayed because she loved him. Find out for yourself if she had fallen truly in love—or into a psychological trap.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateApr 5, 2009
    ISBN9781423383307
    Crazy Love: A Memoir
    Author

    Leslie Morgan Steiner

    Leslie Morgan Steiner is the editor of the highly acclaimed anthology Mommy Wars. She writes “On Balance,” the popular daily Washington Past online column about working motherhood. She is a frequent national television and radio guest on NBC’s Today Show, The Diane Rehm Show on National Public Radio, MSNBC, Fox news and other programs. Steiner lives and works in Washington D.C.

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    Reviews for Crazy Love

    4/5

    91 ratings12 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Any memoir that is written for the sole purpose of awareness and bringing strength to others in my opinion, is and will always be worth the read and then some.

      3 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      It's a good book. I like "reading" books from which I can learn anything about life from and this one fit that criteria.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Crazy Love: A Memoir by Leslie Morgan SteinerLeslie Morgan Steiner, a Harvard graduate with a coveted position at Seventeen magazine and a hip apartment in downtown New York City, seemed to have it all. She had already achieved sobriety, after determining she did not want to follow in her mother’s alcoholic lifestyle. Her father distanced himself from the family by immersing himself in his career. In her early twenties, Leslie had youth and independence to encourage romance. The handsome and charming Conor showed up at the right time.Had Leslie been aware of the behaviors of a potentially abusive man, she might have realized that all that he said and did were manipulations based to suit his needs. He was in it for himself. But she fell in love. She wanted to “help him overcome the years of abuse and neglect and pain…And if I could make him whole, we’d be one person. He’d be mine forever.” The foundation for relationship was faulty; it would require insight and experience to recognize the potential for collapse.The reader learns the signs of an abuser, at first subtle, such as snide remarks about friends, and then covert, such as demanding forfeiture of her career. Leslie cannot make a decision without mentally challenging herself first, asking, “What will Conor think?” or “How will Conor react?” The problem is, he is so unpredictable, she can never anticipate his reaction.Woven throughout this story is a dog that Conor insisted on having, yet Leslie was reluctant to acquire. Leslie nonetheless became attached to the dog. It was interesting to read the details of the dog’s behavior during the dynamics of the relationship.The reader learns of unexpected betrayals during Leslie’s most difficult times, as well as a surprise redemption. Also, the reader learns how hard it is to live with abuse, to survive the physical and emotional wounds, to leave, to get restraining orders, make impossible choices, to move out, to move on. This book was well-written, incorporating information, insight, and depth of characters. We ask, “Why didn’t she leave?” and Leslie Morgan Steiner tells us. We might ask, “Why didn’t he stop?” Too often, he can’t.This book reads like a psychological thriller, yet it is true life, and is only one of thousands of stories like it. Read it to know that someone you know may be at risk.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This was very well written and definitely a book worth reading/ listening to. It was a difficult story to hear at times but goes to show that anyone can end up in a abusive relationship and how hard it is to get out of one.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      An excellent memoire of domestic abuse. For everyone who thinks they can “change” their partner. It will change them. To survive and thrive.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      The issue of battered women is serious and should not be taken lightly. This book is laudable for bringing attention to the problems facing people who are victims of domestic violence; whether men, women or children.

      On a different note altogether, I will not seek out this author again. Her compulsive identification of every non white person she encounters is suggestive of racial bias. She is not able to disassociate from the colour of a person’s skin. I doubt the author would agree with me as people with unconscious bias are, by definition, unaware. I hope she is successful in future writing endeavours and has an opportunity to correct her views.

      In a similar fashion, every page drips with the mention of wealth. Her mother’s family gifted Harvard a large bequest; her family had a large estate it eventually divested itself from but for which it was known; her father was a judge and had graduated from Harvard. The author received a position as editor at Seventeen magazine upon graduation. She received five full time job offers at a time when only 60% of the class was expected to receive just one. The author presents these benefits as occurring in a vacuum devoid of privilege or connections. That may be another unconscious bias; i.e., that she genuinely believes such events continue to occur based on merit. Yet, there is no mention of her grades or standing in her business class that merited five offers while others received none.

      I know these societal and economic privileges do not add to nor deter from the importance of the main purpose of the book. But, if I am to make an honest critique of the book, my decision as to whether I will read another book by this author and why does belong in a review. I’m happy to read the perspectives of others who may disagree.
    • 5/5
      Eye opening and triggering at the same time. Loved it!
    • 4/5
      It's never easy to hear the stories of women abused by their husband, but it's always good to hear about the one that got away.
    • 4/5
      I'm in the middle of reading this book. I have to admit, I am afraid to pick it up and continue. It goes to prove, that domestic violence occurs in all income levels, across the board.
    • 4/5
      When the author of this compelling memoir met a handsome young man on the New York subway and started dating him, she thought she'd met the man of her dreams. But does the man of your dreams choke you, punch you in the face while you're driving, push you down the stairs, or hold a gun to your head? Conor (a pseudonym), whose abusive childhood treatment at the hands of his stepfather has turned him into an abusive adult, repeatedly professes his love for Leslie, despite his continued abuse. Leslie herself repeats over and over how much she loves him and how she doesn't want to abandon him like his mother did. But over the course of their three years together, she slowly comes to realize that she cannot help him overcome his past and that he will never stop abusing her. The reader knows from the very first page that Steiner escapes this awful marriage, but that doesn't make the story any less of a page-turner.
    • 5/5
      People often wonder why a woman stays with an abusive husband. In this book, Leslie Morgan Steiner describes her courtship and marriage to a husband who tried to kill her. In doing so, she describes how an abusive marriage can happen to anyone. The author describes all the reasons why she loved Conor, but also described all the red flags that she explained away to herself. I could not put this book down. What I found especially wrenching were 2 things. At one point, before going through with the wedding, the author decides to tells someone about the abuse. First, she calls a domestic abuse hotline--only to get a busy signal. So then she decides to tell her father. She arranges to meet him for breakfast--only to find that he didn't show up. I had to wonder how differently things might have gone were it not for these 2 critical failures. The other thing I found amazing was that in doing research on abusive relationships, the author discovers that while numerous studies have been done on the female victimes, few studies have been done on the male perpetrators. The one researcher she conversed with, without ever knowing that she was a victim, described her husband and their relationship perfectly.I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to understand domestic violence.
    • 5/5
      I guess her goal in writing this book was to show how an intelligent, self-aware woman with a very cool job (writing for Seventeen magazine) fall in love with a guy who gradually became more and more violent toward her. She succeeded - I could even picture myself (who has never been hit in her life) becoming inextricably entangled with someone like that. Very well done.